And she said there is no mystery to what is behind this devastation of the state's natural condition.

In the 1920s, Florida had about 1 million residents. Today, the state has more than 12 million. They built homes, businesses, roads, dammed lakes to stop flooding and sprayed to kill weeds and insects.

McCracken, who moved to Mount Dora in 1923, has watched it happen.

''The natural environment as I have known it is practically gone,'' she said. ''What do you do about it? You can't build a high fence across the northern border of Florida.''

In the 1930s, McCracken studied botany, bacteriology and illustration at the University of Pennsylvania. At the time, there was virtually no college program in the country to give her that kind of training.

McCracken's professors hand-tailored a study program for her.

''It was just a happy accident that I landed with those people,'' she said.

Her father was a college professor and president, and her two brothers and sister earned doctorate degrees in education administration.

McCracken graduated with a master's degree in time for World War II to begin.

She taught science classes for several years. But through most of her professional career, McCracken has been compiling a massive array of botanical illustrations and paintings.

Like her family, McCracken has been intent upon teaching. But her way has been to teach with illustrations of the wide variety of plant species in Florida.

She believes that the more people know about the state's ecosystem, the more they are likely to be concerned about its well-being.

''People ask me why I don't quit.

Well I can't quit. I'm getting to be in a little bit of a hurry at 71,'' she said.

Greeting visitors to her studio are dried ferns, old glass bottles, wood carvings, classical music and drawing after drawing.

Although this is where she works every day, peering through bifocals at her illustrations, the studio is also a laboratory and archive of extensive research.

Her studio, next to her home east of Tavares, is the heart of The Lyman Goodnight Center, a non-profit botanical education program that is directed by McCracken. The center works to provide botanical illustrations for exhibits, publications and lectures. It stores botanical research and trains illustrators.

More than 6,000 photos of plants are filed away, along with extensive research on more than 300 plants.

Florida has one of the broadest varieties of plant species, which expands daily. Both tropical and temperate plants blend in Central Florida. In addition, the area has many exotic plants, brought to Florida from Northern states and even South America.

''To go out and illustrate all the plants in Lake County you would have to take a 12-foot-long shelf,'' McCracken said.

Currently, she has been working on a series of detailed illustrations for a publication by the Lake County Water Authority. The illustrations are to show a variety of wetland types in the county. And by illustrating the wetlands rather than photographing them, McCracken can include several species of plants and animals.

Behind McCracken's home is 1 1/2 acres of living laboratory; resurrection ferns, wild azaleas, blue curls, river birches and many more. These are plants that are native to Florida, plants that shouldn't be displaced by those brought down from Northern states, she said.

She has planted wetland and scrub plants. She has ferns that are thought to be on the verge of extinction and pines that tower to provide homes for woodpeckers.

''I firmly believe that unless we have an educated public, we are down the drain,'' she said.